Sir Joseph Hotung (1930–2021)

The ancients saw jade as embodying all the virtues of a perfect gentleman, the junzi. As many people noted, Sir Joseph—the philanthropist, collector (particularly of Chinese jade), and businessman—was a gentleman in the true sense of the word and a model of civic-minded humanitarianism. He was also someone of whom it truly could be said that he left the world a better place for having lived in it. However, his name is not generally well known on the world stage because of his innate modesty and desire to maintain a low profile.

Sir Joseph, the grandson of Sir Robert Hotung, was born in Shanghai in 1930 and was educated in China, first in Shanghai and then at St Louis College, in Tianjin (1948–49). He spent many of the war years in Shanghai, and for Sir Joseph, as for many others there, this period was one of deprivation and uncertainty. But he regarded those years as character building; he said his resilience and determination were nurtured during that time. He subsequently spent a year at university in Hong Kong but then decided to go to the United States to take a degree in economics at Catholic University in Washington, DC, where he graduated cum laude. Having married in the States, he worked as a security analyst for the Marine Midland Bank for a number of years. The deaths of his father and grandfather within a little more than a year brought Sir Joseph back to Hong Kong. In the 1960s, he began his own business and was primarily involved in the development of commercial properties.  

Sir Joseph Hotung with Queen Elizabeth, 1992

The next phase of Sir Joseph’s life was centred on Hong Kong, where he played a very active role. He was involved in real-estate development, building on the legacies of his grandfather and father. He served as a director of HSBC Holdings, was on the board of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and was a director of the Hong Kong Electric Holdings as well as the China and Eastern Investment Company. It was during this stage of his life that his love of the arts really came to the fore, and he became the first chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. At this time, he also became a serious collector of the arts, with a particular interest in Chinese jade. In 2006, Sir Joseph donated one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, a sum matched by the government for the establishment of the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education. He also funded a jade gallery in the Shanghai Museum. He served as a member of the Judicial Services Commission and the Inland Revenue Board of Review. And he was a founding member of the Business School of the University of Hong Kong. 

During Sir Joseph’s time in Hong Kong, he increasingly invested in the United States and amassed an impressive portfolio of commercial properties. He made frequent visits to the States, and his enthusiasm and knowledge of the arts led to invitations to serve on the boards of various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Asia Society, in New York, and the visiting committee of the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. His business acumen and his knowledge of the arts was a rare and much valued combination.  

Cong
China; Liangzhu culture
(3300–2200 BC)
Jade; height 49.5 cm
Hotung Collection

Brushpot
China; 18th century
Jade; diameter 19 cm
Hotung Collection

The last phase of Sir Joseph’s life was centred on London, where the British Museum became the main focus of his support of the arts. His association with the British Museum began when Sir Joseph suggested improving the lighting in the Oriental Gallery, where he enjoyed viewing the jade collection during his trips to London. The Keeper of the department, now Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, convinced him that digging holes into the walls to run new cabling for the lighting would mean that the whole gallery would need to be refurbished. Sir Joseph, needing little persuasion, agreed to subsidize the funding. The gallery was opened by Her Majesty The Queen to great acclaim in 1992 and deservedly received a great amount of praise for both its new layout and the new display of the collection. This was also an important landmark for the British Museum as Sir Joseph’s pioneering gesture inspired other patrons to follow suit. Astonishingly, 25 years later, when the gallery again needed refurbishment, he was approached and willingly paid for the entire renovation once more. This newly designed gallery, the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery of China and South Asia, was also opened by Her Majesty The Queen, in 2017.  

In addition, Sir Joseph was a major donor to the British Museum’s Great Court in 2000 and a supporter of the department of the Middle East, an area of the world in which he had an interest, in its ancient history, art, and contemporary politics. He was described as a ‘white knight’ for having been instrumental in subsequently financing the rehousing within the British Museum of the stellar collection of Chinese ceramics belonging to Sir Percival David in 2009. Sir Joseph recognized that art is the international language of education and that it provides many members of the general public with their only opportunity to learn about the culture and history of other societies. Sir Joseph became a trustee of the British Museum in 1994 and was a trustee emeritus from 2004. 

For his contribution and participation in many educational and governmental organizations and his numerous charitable activities, Sir Joseph was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1993. In 1996, he received the Arts Patronage Award from the Montblanc Cultural Foundation.  

Sir Joseph’s initial collecting interests lay in European paintings and Dutch Old Masters, but in the late 1970s he bought on impulse a pair of Qing-dynasty (1644–1911) white jade bowls from a San Francisco gallery. This first purchase led to a curiosity about Qing-period jade which, as with many other collectors, later developed into an interest in the more abstract forms of archaic jades. The core of his jade collection was formed by pieces from the 1979 sale at Sotheby’s, New York, of the McKim collection, which had originally come from C. T. Loo; its dispersal was considered the best opportunity since the Second World War to amass a substantial collection of archaic jades. Through the dealer Robert Ellsworth, he acquired pieces from the Abel William Bahr collection formed in the 1920s, and in 1983 he purchased a number of important pieces from the Richard C. Bull collection. At the time, this was considered to be a final opportunity to acquire archaic jades of superlative quality and rarity. His collection was further enriched by examples from the Cunliffe and Eumorfopoulos collections and by purchases in Hong Kong. Sir Joseph also immersed himself in publications related to the field and broadened his connoisseurship and knowledge by studying jade and bronze collections in the West and at archaeological sites in China. He also became an avid collector of Chinese Yuan-dynasty (1272–1368) blue-and-white porcelain, bronzes, and Ming-period (1368–1644) furniture. His collection of jade, now one of the most important in the world, spans the entire history of this material. The majority of the jades are on display in the Selwyn and Ellie Alleyne Gallery at the British Museum.  

Pair of dragon pendants
China; Warring States period (475–221 BC)
Jade; 7.6 x 12.4 cm, 7.8 x 11.8 cm
Hotung Collection

In the United Kingdom, Sir Joseph’s other interests, such as that of politics in the Middle East, were recognized. He served as a member of the governing body of the School of Oriental and African studies (SOAS), University of London. At SOAS, he also sponsored the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme for Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in the Middle East, where the Professor Iain Scobbie, in particular, was a leading light in publishing on this subject. 

In more recent years in London, Sir Joseph, through private donations and through his Sir Joseph Hotung Charitable Settlement, became increasingly interested in supporting research on medical issues, human rights, and the environment. His contribution to St George’s Hospital, University of London, was pivotal for that institution. He funded research on molecular immunology and HIV/AIDS at the university, and the Sir Joseph Hotung Centre provides a facility for musculoskeletal treatment, research, and education on the hospital site. Thanks to Sir Joseph’s funding, Professor Julian Ma and his team are close to initiating clinical trials for a groundbreaking plant-based antibody product to prevent the spread of HIV from pregnant mothers to their unborn children. Sir Joseph was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science (Medicine) by St George’s, University of London, in September 2021 in recognition of the impact that his funding has had on research at the university. Sir Joseph recognized the global inequities in access to modern medicines and knew that the long-term resolution of these problems could not be achieved without revolutionizing pharmaceutical manufacturing. 

More recently, through the Sir Joseph Hotung Charitable Settlement, money has been donated for research into wet macular degeneration at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Funding has also been provided to the charity Fauna and Flora International, supporting practical measures to counter the effects of climate change. 

The field of human rights was a cause dear to Sir Joseph’s heart. He endowed the Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium at Mansfield College, Oxford University, home of the world-leading Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. In addition, he funded a new internship programme in support of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs. 

With regard to his collections, Sir Joseph said with characteristic modesty, ‘I just bought things if I liked them’. But the excellence and range of the collection testify to Sir Joseph’s judgement and taste. His great generosity to so many charitable causes will further furnish a fitting and enduring legacy to his long life. 

Carol Michaelson is Curator at the Department of Asia, The British Museum.

This article first featured in our March/ April 2022 print issue. To read more, purchase the full issue here.

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